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The internet is composed of about 75% cat pictures and 20% unbelievable stories to amaze your friends.* So it’s no wonder Oscar, the cat who predicts death, captured the imagination of cyberpace last week. Oscar lives in a nursing home, and only curls up with patients who die within the next few hours. You can read the entire report in the New England Journal of Medicine, or the shorter Associated Press story we linked here.
There are many theories about how Oscar knows who is going to die, and some (mostly joking) remarks about how he may be causing the deaths. Those who work with him consider him a hospice hero. But that’s not what I’m posting about. This is about the immediate and predictable flood of art and humor inspired by Oscar’s story.
More “death cat” images after the jump.
Fark forum members raced to post LOLcats of death, some of them previously produced,
and some are pictures of Oscar, including the first one in this article.
My brother put together and sent me this one, unsolicited, as soon as he read about Oscar.
Apelad posted the kitteh of death from his Laugh Out Loud Cats collection.
Oscar is an attractive cat. With LOLcat Buildr and some captions that were posted in the comments on Neatorama, these were easy to produce.
Joey did this one.
I Can Has Cheezburger? had one.
The Flicker Can Has Cheezburger pool has several, like Poor Oscar from dominocat.
Oscar has a plaque at the nursing home that commends him “for his compassionate quality end-of-life care.” Now he is also enshrined in LOLcat history.
*Leaving 5% useful information, found in other mental_floss posts.
Comments (81)
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Oscar rulez and these are gr8!
posted by donner on 7-30-2007 at 7:04 am
I have Fibromyalgia and we rescued a puppy from the desert, who naps with me on my bad days. She also will stick close to any of my family members who are at home sick.
I like to think she is a great therapy dog giving out good healing vibes.
I’m sure Oscar is just a great empathy cat :)
My kids and I love all of the lol cat,I can haz cheezbuger, my bucket etc. Keep em coming!
posted by CropTillDawn on 7-30-2007 at 10:15 am
lolcat is lol
posted by Tora on 7-30-2007 at 8:38 pm
Those are so cute!
posted by chaosgone on 7-30-2007 at 11:08 pm
Excellent series!
Funny no one has taken the next step:
“Is he for rent? I’ve got some people I’d
like him to visit.”
posted by rlmerrick on 7-31-2007 at 12:39 am
aahm all up in ur commentz waitinnnn for ur check ouut
posted by awesome on 7-31-2007 at 2:30 am
love the cats
posted by halle on 7-31-2007 at 2:32 am
nice kitty.
posted by Backside on 7-31-2007 at 2:33 pm
haha, awsome
posted by Adam on 7-31-2007 at 3:03 pm
Hahahaha…EndCat… *wipes tears of laughter from eyes*
posted by Rich Minx on 7-31-2007 at 3:16 pm
I don’t understand why everything has to be spelled wrong, it’s rather annoying.
posted by Nill on 7-31-2007 at 3:20 pm
That fat orange tabby cat was the best.
posted by FREE TELEVISION on 7-31-2007 at 3:22 pm
how did you forget:
“All them momentz lost n tyme, lyke tears n rain. Time to die.”
posted by wassa on 7-31-2007 at 3:36 pm
maybe oscar just doesn’t want to be bothered by old people petting him/peeing on him/telling him how he reminds them of some other cat/etc, so he goes to the people he feels to be the least lively.
posted by tg989 on 7-31-2007 at 3:39 pm
THe kitty should visit the White House.
posted by Improbus on 7-31-2007 at 3:44 pm
I had a cat that was not normally a lap cat but if anyone wasn’t feeling well he was right there on their lap. When my wife was pregnant he spend amazing amounts on time in her lap which stopped as soon as my daughter was born.
posted by Bowser on 7-31-2007 at 3:47 pm
Everyone knows cats eat human souls. They strike at your weakest moment and rip the soul from your body.
posted by Damian_Thorn on 7-31-2007 at 3:49 pm
LOL! Hilarious! :)
Steve
posted by fable on 7-31-2007 at 3:55 pm
Amazing!
Great to bring to a funeral, nice and twisted.
posted by Phil on 7-31-2007 at 4:12 pm
Aweseome!
posted by brian on 7-31-2007 at 4:29 pm
nonsense, this is the cat of death. he isn’t predicting anything he is bringing the death.
posted by h on 7-31-2007 at 4:46 pm
Is the cat a pirate? It is funny but why is he a scurvy dog… arggghhh
posted by grrrrrr on 7-31-2007 at 4:47 pm
Anyone else tired of the moronic lolcat speak yet?
posted by Dave on 7-31-2007 at 5:06 pm
ROFL at “Goodbye Kitty” – brilliant!!
posted by bimmer on 7-31-2007 at 5:16 pm
It’s funny, Oscar fits the theme, but his face seems so somber/serious, that it doesn’t seem to work well for lolcats.
posted by aj on 7-31-2007 at 5:33 pm
Has anyone stopped revearing this miracle long enough to have the cat tested for infectiouse disease?
posted by Troy on 7-31-2007 at 7:07 pm
Are these people close to death? Maybe there is something wrong with the cat…
posted by Adam on 7-31-2007 at 7:27 pm
its Dr. Kat Kevorkian :)
posted by Dion on 7-31-2007 at 7:45 pm
Troy, that is so wrong.
The cat only curls up there right before they die.
And if he had a disease that kills people that fast, everbody else there would have died too, starting with the nurses feeding him and the medic sharing his office with him. (Oscar sleeps under his table, according to another newspaper).
posted by Saga on 7-31-2007 at 8:26 pm
I did a similar post on my blog with “Im in ur hospice….killin ur geezrs” a few days ago.
posted by Kris on 7-31-2007 at 8:35 pm
Love the cats, they are so good to have around when you have an off day. And what if they eat my soul? They are welcome to it.
posted by reddevilpoes on 8-1-2007 at 12:33 am
Nice cat… nice cat… I’m sitting on my bed, browsing the net with my laptop, and I’m praying to God that Oscar does not teleport into my room and climb up onto my bed
posted by iZilchomatik on 8-1-2007 at 2:22 am
wtf is with cat pics and bad spelling?
posted by fedup on 8-1-2007 at 8:31 am
umm improper enlish much? i’d like an american view of this cat, not a german one.
posted by Megan on 8-1-2007 at 9:03 am
Sick, sick, sick and so darn funny. So glad I wasn’t drinking coffee and reading these!
posted by sherry on 8-1-2007 at 9:15 am
“I don’t understand why everything has to be spelled wrong, it’s rather annoying. ”
are you guys seriously JUST now finding out about LOLcats? they’re actually already a passed phase, so you can have them now, if you’d like.
we don’t want them anymore,
love,
internets.
posted by The Internet on 8-1-2007 at 9:28 am
Nill and Dave… chill!
The lolcat speak is part of the fun. Cats are highly intelligent… but are less verbal than ourselves. So, of course, they would have trouble with spelling and grammar… and lack of opposable thumbs.
For myself, kitteh pidgin lets me say things that I, as a human, would have trouble saying.
posted by leaderoftheband on 8-1-2007 at 9:52 am
At least Oscar is there to say “Goodbye”.
posted by suze on 8-1-2007 at 10:20 am
Truly amazing story. Plus some really funny lolcats.
posted by loldogs on 8-1-2007 at 12:46 pm
Megan:
“umm improper enlish much? i’d like an american view of this cat, not a german one.”
ORLY? Lawlz. impropr germen l8ly? lolcats izn’t germen. U loze at Internet. Cats haz win.
posted by SpecialOlympicsFinalist on 8-1-2007 at 2:30 pm
.
he not be ‘Oscar de la Muerta”…he jis b a n2ativ kitteh!
k tks bai
posted by feranghi on 8-1-2007 at 3:59 pm
It’s ridiculous, thinking that the cat brings death or causes death. Anyone who has had an empathic pet will tell you that many cats and dogs can sense when someone is ill and will spend extra time with them. In my case, one cat stuck close to me the whole time but the other too didn’t give a darn.
posted by Catherine on 8-1-2007 at 4:14 pm
It’s ridiculous, thinking that the cat brings death or causes death. Anyone who has had an empathic pet will tell you that many cats and dogs can sense when someone is ill and will spend extra time with them. In my case, one cat stuck close to me the whole time but the other too didn’t give a darn.
posted by Catherine on 8-1-2007 at 4:14 pm
(I find it highly endearing that there are still people unaware of the lolcat phenom. Of course, it might not speak all that highly of mental floss’ readership…)
I liked the article, although I was hoping for some more about Oscar and less about the Oscar lolcat images. Also, I have a slight issue with your “stats” in the first sentence. Funny though they may be, you entirely forgot porn. So, that’s…*checks*…70% porn, 20% cat pics, and 10% stories that don’t amuse your friends anymore because they’ve been forwarded to them 18 times already.
Yeah, I think that’s about right…
posted by dyslexia on 8-1-2007 at 5:55 pm
I think it is very special that Oscar ministers to these folks as they pass. My Lenny knows when someone is ill, and will nearly worry them senseless until they pick him up and let him do his purr rub barrel roll thing. Otherwise he ignores everyone but my wife and me.
Go Oscar, you are one cool cat!
posted by Ray on 8-1-2007 at 8:25 pm
Colbert Report – LOLcat of death
posted by rahneej on 8-1-2007 at 9:47 pm
Dave, I was tired of lolcats before they began! Sadly, I have MANY friends who think it is just so darn funny! Ugh.
Personally, my cats speak perfect English. ;)
posted by yawnlolcats on 8-1-2007 at 11:39 pm
One cat stuck close to you while you died?
posted by LOLCatherine on 8-2-2007 at 12:10 am
iz zykik ur nxt is #1! I thought lolcats and longcats ended months ago, glad to see I was wrong. Chans ftw ^^ And of course you ppl are wrong about deathcat predicting.. he is death incarnate. Sheesh.. some ppl.
posted by esa pekka on 8-2-2007 at 3:49 am
I had a budgie that would lie i bed with me when I was Ill as a kid! beleive it or not I swear its true.
posted by SupaW on 8-2-2007 at 4:21 am
dyslexia, I was waiting for someone to mention porn, and I’m surprised it took three days. Of course, a lady like me ;-) would be totally unaware of such things. And as you know, 67% of statistics are made up on the spot.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-2-2007 at 6:47 am
Oscar is such a cool cat! I am glad he is living with humans who are sensitive enough to discern his special talents.
lolcats rule! More sensitive humans trading and expanding their feline insights. Sometimes cats are more of the “i can has …?” persuasion and will ask their humans before acting on a motivation. Other times, the cat simply “iz” and the humans must simply deal.
And if you really are tired of the lolcat phenom or don’t want to study the lolcat ‘bad english’ then why would you come to an article with “lolcat” in the title? It’s fine if you don’t want to swim, but please don’t pee in the pool…
k bi txh
posted by abettermouse on 8-2-2007 at 7:52 am
Fery gud piktshars.
posted by Phil on 8-2-2007 at 8:09 am
I was pretty disturbed by the “death-predicting” cat, and I don’t think it was a wise decision of the staff to publicize its purported powers.
But I also am happy to see that that nursing home permitted a companion animal among the residents. That’s a big part of the new movement for “Green Nursing Homes.” As an NPR story says, “We know that people find pleasure in the company of animals, the laughter of children, and the growth of green plants, so every Green House must offer elders opportunities to be in contact with the living world that surrounds us all.”
The other thing that’s odd here is that perhaps the cat just has a keen sense of who’s in the most distress, or weakest (slowest heart rate or respiration rate, etc.). It seems odd for the nursing home owners to try to publicize this sign of basic, visceral compassion in an animal as some sort of spooky occult prediction.
posted by Frank on 8-2-2007 at 2:02 pm
Boy have we got a kitteh to rag on like FOREVE—-I predict this kitteh will take rank with the Easter peeps–hahaha!! But really that puss is precious.
posted by Billy s. on 8-2-2007 at 5:08 pm
Apparently, I am not all that much of a lady. ;) I, too, was surprised that no-one else had mentioned porn. I even Ctrl-F’d twice just to make sure I had not missed its mention somewhere.
BTW, Miss Cellania, I failed to mention before that I really like your username. In the words of the lolcats: IZ FUNNEH!
posted by dyslexia on 8-2-2007 at 5:11 pm
I’d already heard about Oscar, but the LOLcats tributes to him are great. I love the first one and the “serious” one, hahaha.
Oh god. I’ve gone from mental_floss intelligista to LOLcat worshipper in no time flat.
posted by Christine on 8-3-2007 at 6:54 am
This story is sweet and sad at the same time. However, this story reminds me of a House episode where the religious man “cured” people (made symptoms disappear temporarily) by touching them with his hand. I’m not trying to be pessimistic but has the cat been tested for specific diseases? Maybe the cat curling up with the people are the reason for those certain people’s deaths. My friend said that “if he were contagious, everyone there would be dead” but maybe the fact that the cat curls up with the patient and puts maximum surface area on the patient is the just perfect way to transmit whatever the cat has. A disease could be fatal in humans and go undetected in cats. It could even be something that could be fatal yet untraceable.
posted by Tiffany on 8-3-2007 at 10:47 am
I just now thought of a less depressing solution. Maybe this cat can sense loss of heat. Cats see colors and heat differently from humans… maybe, this cat is really smart to the point that he can sense when heat from a person’s body is being lost at steady rate. And there is no doubt that Oscar is incredibly smart.
posted by Tiffany on 8-3-2007 at 12:19 pm
TY Catherine – No the cat does not cause anyone’s death, no he doesn’t contaminate anyone with deadly feline viruses. Oscar is more current on his vaccinations than most people we come into contact with daily. And is bathed regularly – as required of all in-house service animals. He knows when the body is near death, the changes in respiration, metabolism, etc. And he sits by those patients. It’s not a prediction – it’s knowing. Taking him to the White House wouldn’t do any good, unless someone there is allergic to cats.
There is a cat at a long-term care facility in Seattle that does a similar service. Same day the story of Oscar aired, the Seattle facility submitted THEIR inhouse ‘wonder-cat’. He doesn’t have the record Oscar has – only 98% accurate. A terminal patient was interviewed, and said she doesn’t fear the end, knowing her little feline angel will be with her till she passes.
That’s love.
More ‘Goodbye Kitty’ please – I am SO tired of that feline wannabe! Real cats wouldn’t be caught dead in that frock or ridiculous bow!
posted by cattwmn on 8-3-2007 at 2:39 pm
Tiffany,
Wow- a disease so fatal that it could kill someone after a few hours of having a cat’s “surface area” near that person? It is no longer the dark ages and we have a thing called science now.
posted by kitteh on 8-3-2007 at 4:15 pm
best mental floss ever :D
posted by hearsetrax on 8-4-2007 at 5:08 am
i have 5 cats and am willing to rent them out for a large fee!!!!! :-)
but joking apart, i think oscar rocks!!
posted by aunti di the cat lady on 8-4-2007 at 8:34 am
animals sense what we cannot.
and why is everything spelled incorrectly??? That gets on my last nerve!!!
posted by Pootchka on 8-4-2007 at 5:39 pm
cattwmn: Apparently they would… but only in Japan.
(http)gizmodo.com/gadgets/animal-abuse/japans-hello-kitty-cat-humiliation-system-282872(dot)php
posted by Carly on 8-6-2007 at 10:20 am
Oscar is awesome!! Yay, Oscar!! ^.^
Pootchka (and anyone else with the “it r speeled rong” argument)…misspellings iz part ov teh appeelz. Deal wif it ur dun reedz teh lolcatz.
kthxbai.
PS~ I iz inglish majer wit teh OCD. ^.^
posted by Meg on 8-6-2007 at 11:41 pm
Some bastard killed that poor cat. There was a link on fark.com
I hope that person dies alone.
posted by frank on 8-7-2007 at 5:09 pm
For crying out loud people, what’s the harm in finding these kinds of things funny/amusing? There is too much misery in the world without bitching and moaning about ‘bad spelling’.
posted by BNut on 8-7-2007 at 7:35 pm
Well…
…this puts the “fun” back in “funeral” !
posted by Joy on 8-10-2007 at 2:13 pm
This is the cancer killing cat image macros
posted by John on 8-13-2007 at 10:52 am
all over the unofficial news sites, it’s said that oscar the cat was killed and found with a dented bedpan near the body, but i haven’t gotten anything on an official site. it sounds like an e-myth, but i don’t know. anyone got a legit source saying he was killed? (if so, that’s pretty sad.)
posted by tish on 8-21-2007 at 12:19 pm
tish, that was a joke. It kinda got out of hand.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-21-2007 at 1:58 pm
Gear up for grub with a tripleheader of pigskin, including a meeting of brothers in Dallas. Everybody knows it’s been a rough year for her, but find out who else had issues
posted by Iris on 11-22-2007 at 5:55 am
Gear up for grub with a tripleheader of pigskin, including a meeting of brothers in Dallas. Everybody knows it’s been a rough year for her, but find out who else had issues
posted by Jessica on 11-22-2007 at 6:16 am
i work where oscar the cat lives.. he is alive, healthy, happy and still doing his “job”.. i loved these pictures, etc.
thank you
posted by marylee on 12-31-2007 at 1:33 pm
These pics are so cute. I especially like the pic of the cat sitting in the chair like he’s some king.
posted by watch tv online on 4-22-2008 at 1:20 pm
Um, if Oscar truly does have a “plague” at the nursing home as the article says, then his talent isn’t really so inexplicable. If, however, he has a PLAQUE, it’s back to being awesome.
posted by Allison on 8-11-2008 at 4:17 pm
That cat is a fekkin JINX, someone should KILL it ASAP!
posted by SupaW on 9-28-2008 at 4:07 pm
I iz reper
U iz be ded soon
I be has ur sole
>:D
posted by R0F1C@TZ on 12-30-2008 at 12:57 pm
I only discovered the existence of this LOLCATS underworld two days ago and I must say I find it very disturbing. I can’t imagine an adult sitting in front of their computer at night making these. I seems to be a disorder that provokes juvenile behavior in adults.
posted by Ben Dovah on 1-8-2009 at 10:26 pm
LOL @ Dion! I laughed at that! I’m not just saying LOL! And yes, the mispellings are starting to get a little annoying.
posted by Sara in AL on 2-24-2009 at 11:56 am